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Reviews by clvand0:

This beer pours a dark brown color with a small head that falls quickly and leaves no lacing on the glass. The aroma has hints of chocolate and sweet maltiness. The flavor is very malty with chocolate and plenty of bitterness at the end. Tasty brew with hints of alcohol. Medium/thick body. The drinkability is good for the alcohol levels.

Jon's bottle, this one is sweet and drinkable. Brown body that leaves spider lace. A tad below average mouthfeel. Some chocolate, and a bit of cooconut. Too malty to be very interesting, and booziness still there. Somewhat coca cola.Maybe better with ageing.

T: Toasty malt, brown bread, chocolate, a bit of powdery dryness, figs & herbal hops up front. A touch of coffee intertwines with dates & a touch of booze & leafy hops as this warms,along with a bit of coffee. Finishes fruitty with pralines & dryness

MF: Medium bodied, smoothly carbonated, skews fruitty

Drinks fairly easy, more American Porter with a touch of English, than anything else. Not bad, but nothing to get too worked up about. They should've put the effort into brewing they did in tarting up the packaging

Originally reviewed March 31, 2007. Pour from a 750mL. Thanks BBB63. Faint toasted oak aroma, with light weak malt. Deep mahogany pour with lilting tawny cream head. Flavor comes across as a somewhat dry, bland middle-malt, with overly hot alcohols. One of the hottest beers in memory for me, actually. Tannins are singing and dont lead to other nuanced flavors. Cherry perks up before being washed away in fusels. Not much body or depth, unfortunately.

Taste is less roast more malt. There is some roast malt, but the caramel, molasses and chocolate are bigger. Finish is a little weak some sweeter caramel and peat, oak, but it also leads to a bit of cardboard likeness.

Very easy to drink. Small bubble not quite creamy, mid body mouthfeel. Alcohol is well subdued, this might be a few months old with probably also helps there.

Kind of like malty dopplebock meets porter. Really not bad, but be prepared for something a bit different. It was like 8.50 for the 750, which nowadays seems quite reasonable.

25.4 ounce bottle, served in a Samuel Adams pint glass. No date/ABV information on the bottle or label. The beer pours dark brown with about an inch tan head. Head retention is pretty good. It smells like chocolate, coffee, roasted malt and a bit of citrusy hops. It tastes the same way to me, but there's a sour tang to it and the grapefruity bitter hoppy taste is stronger than you'd think. Seems a bit weird for a porter, it's not quite what I expected. Mouthfeel is medium/full bodied, very smooth and a bit slick. Drinkability is good too, except for the unexpected sour tang. I think this is a decent beer, but not a great one.

Pours a murky super dark brown almost black body. A strong pour creates a foamy one finger thick dark tan head that stays creamy and long. Nose is a very zesty spicey feel with noticeable burnt malt and notes of peanuts and oak. Huge syrupy sweet zestyness swarms around the tongue on first sip. Slightly soured oak and hints of port develop also. Malt characters are sticky and alchol is slightly up front. Burnt malt feel comes through on the end of the mouthfeel. Soured malt feel slightly hurts the drinkability.

Nose is pretty good... chocolate and lite cinnamon.. bits of caramel.. okay.. sorta rich, but reaching.. multi-dimensional but never meshes.

Flavor is better.. milk chocolate essence and minor roasty notes.. there are some dark fruit notes that add well... honestly.. I don't have alot more to say.. the chocolate points do alot to push this one out of the mire, but I just don't dig it too much... body and carbonation seem average to a bit above, but I still having a hard time pushing it to the upper echelon.

Eric... I wanted to like this one more, but sorry.. it just doesn't jive. Thanks a ton for dragging this one back from your travels.

Pours out really dark and black where no light penetrates. Lacing is light here even with the three fingers of tan suds.
Smell is coffee and dark cherry with dark chocoloate overtones. Alcohol is definately there.
Taste is very malty sweet at first then a dark cherry and coffee flavor take over giving over the the bitter hops at the end.
Sugary aftertaste with the bitter hops holding on. Pretty nice mouthfeel here.
I wouldn't drink a bunch of this but it is still a nice offering from a beer company in my State.~

dark brown with a nice reddish ruby tint to it. Nearly opaque but enough light came through to show off the red tones to it. Hige pillow like cream colored head was very slow to recede and when it did left behind a large amount of gooey lace on the glass. The smell was very strong of roasted dark chocolate, which caught me a bit by suprise. As it warmed some more sugary, caramel like tones started to come through. The mouthfeel was a little thin, watery which is my only complaint, I expected a bit more of a robust feel to it. The taste itself was very nice. Suprisingly hoppy on the back and very well balanced with the roasted malts. Main flavors here were more of a roasted coffee and sugar, with a ever so slight hint of chocolate, nothing like the smell which was dominated by it. Overall this was a nice sessionable beer.

Nice near black color with a good amount of brown head that hangs around for some time. Smells of figs, raisin, coffee, and cocoa. Taste is similar, with a good amount of toasted malt, chocolate, and molasses. I could use some more body - at times it seemed a little thin. It's definitely a big beer and drinks that way.

Aromas of milk and dark chocolate rum soaked cherries. Lesser notes of espresso and toffee with very slight earthy notes. Really inviting and fruity, much more so than any porter I can recall in recent memory.
The taste begins with full milk chocolate and coffee flavors. Initially I am not getting the full fruitiness or any of the alcohol that I was getting in the nose with is a negative and a positive at the same time. I wish I knew when this was bottled just for an age reference, anyway... As it warms you can detect the cherry cordial flavors I was describing in the nose. As it further warms you get more of the bitter dark chocolate and espresso bitterness which helps to balance out the initial caramel and cocoa sweetness. This is really a complex beer to say the least.
Mouthfeel is medium with adequate carbonation, could probably benefit from being a little fuller bodied for the style and ABV but by no means is this watery as I have read from some other reviewers; every beer doesn't need to be as thick and heavy as World Wide Stout, Dark Lord, etc. I wish reviewers would grow up and not just go by booziness, thickness and IBU for every review they do. I digress... This is my 3rd beer from this brewery and my first positive review to date; I will not abandon them yet as I was planning to after my first 2 experiences. Let's hope for some more well balanced special offerings like this from Bluegrass in the future.

Poured this 25.4 oz. brown bottle into a Samuel Smith tulip. No date and no ABV listed, I'm guessing it is rather high. The dark brown/purple body was clear of sediment. Two fingers of creamy tan head slowly faded to a collar.

Taste was tart and bitter. Sweet and rich. Molasses. Toasted grains. A sugary film coats the lips. Black coffee and hints of chocolaty bitterness. This one has a longer bitter linger. Formidable bottle for one person.

Mouthfeel is silky and full bodied. Mild carbonation.

From the website:

The label design for "Russian Imperial Porter 210", which features twin-dancing radioactive skeletons and a photographic image of an atomic blast on an electrifying tie-dye look background, pays tribute to the 1986 Russian Chernobyl disaster with the "210" added as a reference to "a beryllium/plutonium 210 neutron initiator", (like the one used in the Manhattan Project"), which can be used to create a chain reaction in a nuclear device".

A black opaque color, slight hints of red at the bottom of the glass. A beige head forms, that is two fingers thick and it slowly laces down the glass. A first scent a twinge of alchol hit the nose, then the fragrance of dried fruit, currants and raisons comes foward. The aroma is rounded out by the by calming scent of coffee. The coffee comes out at the start of the taste, then it blends itself to the dried fruit and finishing with a tart bitterness. A medium feel at the start, it gains weight as the syrupy texture rolls across the palate. The warming sensation of alchol does come forward at the back of the throat. A unique approach to the imperial style, I was hoping for more robust porter flavor and aroma.

Picked this up from the brewery. Poured from 750ml bittle into snifter on 4/19. Very dark brown almost black with a 1 finger head. Dark fruits, sweet malts, zero hops. Taste is the same with chocolate. Alcohol is very well hidden. The mouthfell is medium with ok carbonation. Lighter bodied than I wanted but was ok. This beer was good but not great- drinkable for the high ABVs

Poured a dark brown color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of roast, cocoa, nutty, licorice, and molassess. Tastes of dark fruits, caramel, cocoa, and licorice. On the sweeter side. Alcohol content very well hidden.

Appearance - no light getting through this one. A finger of soapy, creamy tan foam. It's heading south pretty quick but leaving a nice blanket of lace behind.

Aroma - toasted grain, a note of alcohol early on, a note of butteriness at times. Fades out a bit after it sets up, with the butter bit gaining ground. Ends up just plain buttery, not portery at all to me.

Taste - a very good robust grain flavor, hints of caramel and toast. A light hop presence followed by warming alcohol on the swallow, a light bitter chocolate and toasted malts at the end. A nicely ramped up porter flavor, good length on the finish.

Mouthfeel - a good solid heaviness and slightly held back carbonation really help amplify the flavors.

Drinkability - not sure of the abv but while it is evident it doesn't come across hot. Another good choice to help get through this latest round of winter weather. Cellarable too I'd imagine.

I always wonder if these bigger Porters will loose the balance and push it into the Russian Imperial Stout catagory. This one seems to keep the chocolate, roasty balance with Porter-like fruity esters. Subdued hoppiness comes through in the bitter and flavor, but only balances the sweetness and complements the flavors without dominating. The body certainly substantiates the R.I. prefix, but the alcohols push into fusal territory, leaving a bit of harshness in the finish. Otherwise, a straight-forward Porter, just amped up a lot. The carbonation was medium and supported the heavy brew well. Medium on the head formation and retention with light lacing on the glass. I'd gladly have another, but prefer to give it a year's age if possible.